Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have now introduced the Mental Health Reform Act of 2015. While Mental Health America has not yet formally endorsed it or its House counterpart, we consider it another important step toward making comprehensive mental health reform a reality in America.

It builds on H.R. 2646, the Murphy-Johnson proposal introduced two months ago in the House, incorporating many of the provisions that Mental Health America has made a priority in our advocacy for many years.

There are half a million homeless people with serious mental illnesses in desperate need of help yet underserved or ignored by our health and social-service systems. That number can seem overwhelming, but for me, it’s all about one person: my son Tim.

Early Saturday morning, I saw the op-ed that you both authored which ran in the Wall Street Journal.

It pretty much was all I could think of over the weekend. At first I was very, very angry. This was because it hurt me personally, as a family member, as a mental health advocate, and as a social worker.

November 26 Forum in Newark on Transferring Lessons Learned in the Public Behavioral Health System to the Expanded Options under the ACA

Mental Health America’s Regional Policy Council will host an issue forum in Newark on Tuesday, November 26, on Transferring Lessons Learned in the Public Behavioral Health System to the Expanded Options under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The briefing will be held at the Hilton Newark Penn Station, 1048 Raymond Blvd., from 10:00 am to 12 Noon.

Debbie Plotnick, Mental Health America’s Senior Director of State Policy, will speak at Bryn Mawr College’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research Panel on the Affordable Care Act on Saturday, November 16, from 2:00 – 5:00 pm.

Other panelists are: Michael Campbell, JD, Director, Villanova University Law School Health Clinic, and Koyuki Yip, of the Public Policy Department of the Maternity Care Coalition.

Moderator of the panel is Darlyne Bailey, Dean of Bryn Mawr’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.

The nation must build on the attention given mental health that has followed the Newtown tragedy by deploying a public health response and implementing scientific advances that can prevent, identify and effectively treat mental illnesses, leaders of Mental Health America assert in the March issue of the journal Health Affairs.